The new cultivar is a product of a planned breeding program. The new variety originated from a cross pollination of the seed parent, an unnamed proprietary variety of Guzmania hybrid with the pollen parent Guzmania lingulata, directed by the inventor in October of 2004.
‘Aureus’ was discovered by the inventor, Rolf Kurt Zornig, in October 2006 in Campinas, Brazil in a group of seedlings resulting from the 2004 crossing.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar ‘Aureus’ was first performed in Campinas, Brazil by tissue culture in July 2007. ‘Aureus’ has since produced several generations by micro-propagation and has shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type.